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Dakota Osceola pushes her daughter Mia, 2, in a stroller at the Collier Fair in Naples on March 21, 2019. Since Mia's birth, Dakota has been a single mother, relying largely on the help of her family to raise her daughter. Morgan Hornsby/Naples Daily News USA TODAY NETWORK - FLORIDA

Dakota Osceola shows a tattoo of her last name on her back on April 18, 2019. "There is so much love and strength in having the last name Osceola and being a woman in such a strong united family," she said of her family name. Morgan Hornsby/Naples Daily News USA TODAY NETWORK - FLORIDA

Dakota and Tina Osceola sell jewelry together at the Osceola Village on the Miccosukee Reservation on May 5, 2019. The mother and daughter make jewelry individually and often sell it together at events and locations across Southwest Florida. Morgan Hornsby/Naples Daily News USA TODAY NETWORK - FLORIDA

Dakota and Tina Osceola sell jewelry together under a chickee hut at the Osceola Village on the Miccosukee Reservation on May 5, 2019. Once a month, Dakota and Tina come to this location to sell jewelry together as well as buy other products, such as clothing or tools, from friends and family members who also sell here. Morgan Hornsby/Naples Daily News USA TODAY NETWORK - FLORIDA

Dakota Osceola shows some of the jewelry she has made at the Osceola Village on the Miccosukee Reservation on May 5, 2019. Dakota sells her jewelry at many locations and events across Southwest Florida as well as online through her Instagram account, @beadworkbydakota. Morgan Hornsby/Naples Daily News USA TODAY NETWORK - FLORIDA

Tina and Dakota Osceola at the Osceola Village on the Miccosukee Reservation on May 5, 2019. "I love my mom and she is why I'm the way I am and I'm so grateful for it," Dakota said. Morgan Hornsby/Naples Daily News USA TODAY NETWORK - FLORIDA

Dakota Osceola and her daughter Mia walk down the driveway of their home in Naples on May 3, 2019. Many members of their family, including Dakota's mother, brother, and grandparents, live on the same street as Dakota and Mia. "We have everything we need, and that's each other," she said. "We're trying to be financially independent, trying our best to work as hard as we can to accomplish our goals, and that's really what it's been about since the beginning of the Osceolas." Morgan Hornsby/Naples Daily News USA TODAY NETWORK - FLORIDA

Dakota Osceola opens a container of beads at her home in Naples on April 18, 2019. From her home, often from this couch, she makes the beadwork she sells to support herself and her daughter. Morgan Hornsby/Naples Daily News USA TODAY NETWORK - FLORIDA

Dakota Osceola walks through her home in Naples on May 3, 2019. From the home, she makes the beadwork she sells to support herself and her daughter. Morgan Hornsby/Naples Daily News USA TODAY NETWORK - FLORIDA

Dakota Osceola with her daughter Mia at their home in Naples on May 3, 2019. "I want Mia to be unapologetically herself no matter how weird or silly that person is, to treat people how she wants to be treated, and never settle for anybody less than what her family can provide for her," Dakota said. Morgan Hornsby/Naples Daily News USA TODAY NETWORK - FLORIDA

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Every time Dakota Osceola hit rock bottom, she had the will to get back up and a mom who stood by her with outstretched hands — no judgment, no shaming, no ultimatums.

Through years of Dakota’s drug addiction, rehab treatments, depression, the overdose deaths of her friends, relapses and unhealthy relationships, Tina Marie Osceola was there — a stable, determined force of tough love and support for her daughter regardless of the circumstances and decisions that led her girl down an agonizing path.

“There was no playbook to go by, other than the way I was raised by my own parents,” Osceola said. “I wanted Dakota to know that I would always be there, regardless of what the problem was. If your kid feels like you’re judging them, they’re going to think you think they’re a bad person. And they’re not going to come to you. They’re going to shut you out.”

Dakota Osceola and her daughter, Mia, walk down the driveway of their home in Naples on May 3, 2019. Many members of their family, including Dakota's mother, brother, and grandparents, live on the same street as Dakota and Mia. "We have everything we need, and that's each other," she said. "We're trying to be financially independent, trying our best to work as hard as we can to accomplish our goals, and that's really what it's been about since the beginning of the Osceolas."(Photo: Morgan Hornsby/Naples Daily News USA TODAY NETWORK - FLORIDA)

Osceola said she had to check herself frequently when figuring out how to help her daughter and how involved to get in Dakota’s life during her difficult periods.

In Osceola’s experience, giving tough love sometimes meant letting Dakota sit in jail when she was arrested, taking her to rehab centers again and again, telling her daughter what she needed to hear and letting her make her own mistakes while remaining vigilant.

Osceola said she’s a problem solver and a fixer. But she knew she couldn’t fix her daughter’s problems for her no matter how much she wanted to.

“It’s letting them fall,” Osceola said. “It’s the hardest thing a parent can do. But if you don’t let them hit their own version of rock bottom and let them get back up themselves, they’re not going to find that road to recovery.”

She left an abusive relationship and is a single mom to her 2-year-old daughter, Mia. She has become actively involved in her family’s Seminole culture, including causes related to indigenous women’s issues. She raises awareness about violence against women and raises money for the National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center.

Dakota started a business selling traditional Seminole jewelry. She spends hours every day buried in beads, creating necklaces, bracelets and earrings in intricate color patterns. Dakota and her mom, who also beads, sell their creations on Seminole and Miccosukee reservations in South Florida and beyond.

“I’m really proud. It saved my life,” Dakota said of beading.

History of drug use

Dakota said she started partying and skipping class in high school. She said she started smoking marijuana when she was 16 years old. She eventually moved on to hallucinogens. Then Xanax.

“That was my first time getting to the point where I wasn’t remembering giant blocks of time,” she said.

In 2012, when Dakota was 18, Collier County Sheriff’s deputies arrested her at her mom’s house on charges of possession of alcohol by a minor, marijuana and drug paraphernalia. She was arrested again soon after being released from the Collier jail on another marijuana possession charge.

Osceola was out of town a lot because of her job with the Seminole Tribe of Florida. She’s currently a tribal judge and worked at the Sheriff’s Office from 1995 to 2004.

Osceola said it felt like she blinked and things changed with her daughter. She can’t remember when the transition happened.

“I was on the road a lot, and so I think that’s why it seemed like it happened so fast…,” she said.

Dakota Osceola shows a tattoo of her last name on her back on April 18, 2019. "There is so much love and strength in having the last name Osceola and being a woman in such a strong united family."(Photo: Morgan Hornsby/Naples Daily News USA TODAY NETWORK - FLORIDA)

Dakota’s drug use became an emergency for Osceola, and she wanted it to be everybody else’s emergency, too. When Osceola needed help for herself and her daughter, she turned to her tribe and her former coworkers at the Sheriff’s Office. They became her extended support network. She reached out to whatever resources she could find.

“I didn’t care if they arrested her. That was fine,” Osceola said. “Jail, institutions or death, and I’ll choose jail. I’ll choose an institution for my daughter. Who wants to choose death?”

Dakota was always open about her struggles, her mom said. She’s unapologetically herself and was brutally honest about her addiction. It was never a secret, but it was still difficult for Osceola to accept.

“I’m the one who had to tell myself the truth about what was really going on most of the time,” Osceola said. “I had to be brave enough to start asking questions. And that’s not easy when you know your child will tell you the truth. That’s the ground floor of denial, not knowing and not being brave enough to even ask the questions.”

Dakota’s first rehab treatment began days after her 2012 arrest. She stayed at a treatment center for about 100 days, she said.

“It gave me a dose of independence and really showed me what life could be,” Dakota said.

Her sobriety didn’t last long when she got back home. She had more rehab stints between 2013 and 2015. A series of traumatic losses compounded her struggle.

One friend died in a motorcycle crash. Others died of overdoses. A guy she was dating died of an overdose in March 2015, one day after the pair went looking for apartments to move into together.

“ … My drug use went off the charts after that happened,” Dakota said. “I was self-medicating not to feel that pain.”

“After that I was like, you know what? This is the reality of it: You can either die, go to jail, or be institutionalized for the rest of your life because you did some pretty bad harm to yourself,” Dakota said. “I didn’t take it seriously before that.”

Beading, beading, beading

Dakota believes beautiful things can come from terrible situations.

Everything she has gone through, she said, was meant to happen to bring better things into her life. She feels that way about her beadwork and her daughter.

In 2015, during one of their weekly phone calls when she was at the Tampa center, Dakota asked her mom to bring her plastic bin full of beads.

Osceola visited a bead store in Naples and bought pliers and wire. She stuffed Dakota’s bead bin with everything she would need and delivered it to her.

Dakota grew up in a house full of beads. When she was little, she sat in her family’s booths at various reservations while they sold their art.

Her mom has had a massive collection since she was a kid, and when Dakota was about 5 years old, she started collecting her own.

Osceola grew up in Naples but lived within her tribal culture. Her life was all about her family and the traditional art they made and sold so they could pay the bills. Her aunts and cousins sew Seminole patchwork “like no one’s business,” and her dad makes jewelry. Osceola learned how to weave baskets, make dolls and sew, though she said she was a failure as a seamstress. Osceola and her dad also have a beading business together.

“Beading was my thing,” Osceola said.

Dakota Osceola shows some of her handmade jewelry at the Osceola Village on the Miccosukee reservation on May 5, 2019. Dakota sells her jewelry at many locations and events across Southwest Florida as well as online through her Instagram account, @beadworkbydakota.(Photo: Morgan Hornsby/Naples Daily News USA TODAY NETWORK - FLORIDA)

And it’s become her daughter’s thing. Making traditional art for survival took on a different meaning for Dakota. She didn’t need to make jewelry to support a family, pay bills or put herself through school; she needed it to work through her struggles.

The day Dakota picked up her beads at the rehab facility became her first day of healing.

Dakota began thriving. She made jewelry for her friends in rehab and taught some of them how to bead. When she left the center, she got a booth at a market in Ybor City near downtown Tampa and sold countless pieces.

“You know, that independence and the ability to set goals for herself, and to know that she did it and it was 100 percent her effort … that did more than anything toward her sobriety,” Osceola said.

Finding peace

Dakota had another major obstacle to overcome before she found her peace.

She said she was in an abusive relationship with her daughter’s father. Dakota said he was physically abusive before she became pregnant and he didn’t stop after.

Dakota’s mom said her daughter’s life sometimes felt like she was walking back through some of her own experiences.

“I had to get past an emotional reaction and wanting to be the mom that picks up a stick, goes out and beats the crap out of somebody to rational thought,” Osceola said.

She had to think to herself: What tools have I learned along the way?

Osceola said she experienced a years-long abusive relationship when she was in college. She said she thought the abuse was her fault at the time, that she must have done something to deserve it. She stayed for five years, and it was five years too long, she said.

Dakota, left, and Tina Osceola sell jewelry together at the Osceola Village on the Miccosukee reservation on May 5, 2019. The mother and daughter make jewelry individually and often sell it together at events and locations across Southwest Florida.(Photo: Morgan Hornsby/Naples Daily News USA TODAY NETWORK - FLORIDA)

Osceola knows her daughter. She knows telling Dakota what to do doesn’t work, because being told what to do didn’t work for Osceola, either. Osceola checked herself again.

She believed in allowing her daughter to make her own mistakes before. To reach rock bottom so she could get back up. But Dakota had only been in recovery for a few months. She wasn’t on solid ground just yet.

“I knew this was something that could push her over the edge,” Osceola said.

This was not a rock bottom she would let her daughter reach.

Osceola put her foot down in her own way. She told Dakota she couldn’t let the man do that to her and asked her daughter to let her call law enforcement.

Dakota moved back to Naples after the incident. She had her family’s support throughout her pregnancy and in the two and a half years since she had Mia.

Dakota said she now feels like she’s in a good place — in her home, her work and motherhood.

“My daughter’s happy,” Dakota said. “She loves this space, she loves our house, she loves coming home. And that’s where I wanna be. This is where I’m happy.”

It takes a tribe

Dakota said her mom and grandparents have given her everything she needs emotionally and mentally.

She and her mom get their strength from their family, their culture and their moments of darkness.

When Dakota was using drugs, and even when she wasn’t, her mom was always there to pick her up and come up with solutions to whatever she was going through. Her grandma was there to make her feel warm and loved. Her grandma made her feel like she was something special.

Dakota and her mom said they also derive their strength from what it means to be indigenous women: community-oriented, strong, loving, accepting. Warriors.

Since Dakota started selling her jewelry on reservations, she has opened herself up to people and made lasting friendships with other indigenous women. They support each other’s businesses and talk about their traditional arts and preserving culture.

“We all try to empower each other,” Dakota said. “We show up for each other and have our own economy.”

The strength, rich culture and power that Dakota’s family has passed on to her is something she wants to pass on to Mia.

Dakota’s mom was driven to work, be financially independent, support her family and be involved in tribal issues locally and nationally. Now Dakota is at a stage in which she values her business, financial independence, providing for her daughter and being involved in her community.

Everything the Osceolas do they do together, for each other, and with the help of their family.

She’s raising Mia with a secure, united family. Dakota likes to say her mom is a badass, and that she’s lucky to be a mom to a little girl she knows is going to turn out the same way.

“I want Mia to be unapologetically herself, no matter how weird or silly that may be,” Dakota said. “To treat people how she wants to be treated and never settle for anybody less than what her family can provide for her.”

Dakota has a lot of hope — for her daughter, herself, her business, her future.

That hope came from surviving her addictions and finding her power through family background. She said she has lost the desire to use drugs. While she feels like a weight has been lifted off her shoulders, she works on herself and her mental health regularly and makes sure she maintains a healthy, balanced lifestyle.

Dakota Osceola with her daughter, Mia, at their home in Naples on May 3, 2019. "I want Mia to be unapologetically herself no matter how weird or silly that person is, to treat people how she wants to be treated, and never settle for anybody less than what her family can provide for her," Dakota said.(Photo: Morgan Hornsby/Naples Daily News USA TODAY NETWORK - FLORIDA)

Dakota’s mom said addiction runs in their family. And substance abuse issues affect indigenous populations in general. Osceola has worried about history repeating itself, but she believes in Dakota and her commitment to her sobriety.

“I think a lot of people in our society look at addiction as a weakness instead of a source of strength,” Osceola said. “That’s not our weakness. The battles native people have gone through, it’s not our weakness. It’s our strength that we survived.”

During that final stint in rehab, Dakota willed herself to get back up. Her survival is inextricably linked to the strength she gets from her family.